Page 2056 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 May 2013
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contamination. In this regard, the level of contamination at a particular service station site is dependent on how effectively that site has been managed over the course of its use, which can often be for many decades. The remediation of service station sites in the ACT is governed by the Environment Protection Act. The act requires a rigorous assessment and audit process to ensure that sites are suitable for the proposed redevelopment, which is often a residential redevelopment.
The specific policies that apply to the contaminated sites in the ACT are detailed in the EPA’s contaminated sites environment protection policy 2009. For service station sites in the ACT, a site assessment remediation, if required, and independent audit are normally triggered by the lodgement of a development application to redevelop a site for a different use. In the majority of cases, the change in use is to facilitate residential development, and it is this land use that dictates the need for a very stringent standard of remediation.
The EPA is a mandatory referral entity under the Planning and Development Act for applications involving petroleum storage facilities that are being redeveloped. Over the years there have been a significant number of service station sites successfully remediated and redeveloped in the ACT through this process. Guidelines, which are national in their development and adopted here in the ACT, have specific criteria for the clean-up of service station sites to ensure the protection of human health and the environment.
I cannot understate the importance of this work. Members may recall the tragic incident that happened at the Centre Cinema in Civic in 1977, where an employee was fatally injured as a result of explosive fumes in the basement of the cinema. The fumes which created the explosive situation originated for a nearby service station where fuel had leaked into the groundwater. There are a significant number of businesses, including service stations, industrial premises and fuel depots in the ACT that have underground petroleum storage tanks and piping. Over time, these components become subject to corrosion, which creates holes in the tanks or piping.
The release of petroleum through leaks and spills can contaminate the soil, groundwater, surface water and sometimes the air. Some of the components of petroleum are extremely toxic and they are also soluble in water. This means that there can be significant impacts to groundwater and surface water ecosystems and make the groundwater itself unsuitable for use. The remediation of some service station sites, therefore, can be very complex and time consuming, particularly if there is contamination to groundwater, as has been the case in a number of sites recently or currently under assessment.
The government takes the issue of long-term vacant sites seriously and my directorate spends a considerable amount of time trying to resolve it. But we do so in the context of recognising the very difficult nature of these sites. In the event that groundwater is contaminated, for example, the mandatory criterion adopted nationally is that all phase separated—free—petroleum product must be removed as this is generally the component that has the potential to be explosive if it is captured in basements and building structures. Let me make that clear. In circumstances where vapours from petrol which is in groundwater escape into a basement, if that basement is in a new
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